A Place of Death
by warmsugar
Summary: In which a conversation between a pumpkin-head and little girl ensues. What truths shall be uncovered?
1. Chapter 1

**A Place of Death**

By warmsugar

She looked at the still figure on the bed. She watched in a state of curious detachment, as though she was untouched by it all.

"What are you doing here?" The gaunt, pale man asked.

She shrugged. "What I've always done before. Watched and waited." She cocked her head to the side and inquired mockingly. "Am I disturbing you? There is no rule, brother dear that says I cannot be here."

Morpheus, the shaper of dreams smiled crookedly. "It was just a question. Why are you so defensive?" He demanded pointedly.

"I've been watching her for quite some time now. She intrigues me." She stated simply.

Dream turned his gaze on the silent form. She stirred with the hundred minute convulsions that wracked her already pitifully thin body. He wondered how something so small could feel such great suffering. He sighed. Such matters were beyond his control. "Go away sister, your presence is unsettling." He commanded.

"Dream, Dream… when will you learn that what you say doesn't matter to me?" She asked in amused tones. "But in this I will humor you. I'll leave for now," she looked him in the eye and continued, "Although you quite understand that I too, have business here."

"Go. Leave me. You'll have your moment soon enough." He held out his hand and lightly touched the face of the sleeping child. She quieted immediately. Her eyes flickered behind closed lids.


	2. Chapter 2

She was dreaming. Annie knew it because she was outside. The colors were bright all around her and the sun blazed against the sapphire sky. She looked around her curiously. She was in a garden filled with the prettiest flowers she'd ever seen. They were of every imaginable size and color. Yellows, reds and blues… all the colors in her 64-color box of Crayola. The memory filled her with bittersweet regret. The day her parents brought home her crayons was the same day they told her she could never play outside in the sunshine again.

She sighed gustily. Of course there were other things that convinced her that she was dreaming. She was, for instance, standing straight and tall. More importantly, there was no pain. She felt incredibly light and free. As though she could let go and fly away any moment.

Suddenly, her attention was caught by the bubbles floating around her. If she looked closely, miniature yellow pigs were captured in its rainbow casement. 

"Hello." A little voice whispered in her ear, startling her out of her reverie.

Annie whirled around in surprise. Before her stood a girl… child? She couldn't tell, really. She was dressed in clothes that would have made her extremely fashionable mother shudder with distaste. Well, she admitted to herself cautiously, the purple-colored vest and lime green mini-skirt were a BIT hard on the eyes. Combined with furry bunny slippers and the shock of orange hair growing haphazardly on her head, the sight was quite horrifying.

"You look like a tortured eggplant, you know." She blurted out unthinkingly.

The girl blinked. "Tortured eggplant…" She repeated, letting the words roll around her tongue like jellybeans.

Annie was mortified. "I'm sorry." She said contritely. "I shouldn't have said that, it was impossibly rude."

"Hmmnnn…" the girl murmured.

Belatedly, Annie realized that the girl-child in front of her had the oddest eyes, one green, and one blue.

"Tortured eggplant?" she finally said, her small nose wrinkling with distaste. "I definitely don't want one of those. They must be like those creepy-crawlies lurking in my brother's castle." She nodded her head in agreement. "Yes, yes, I much prefer nice, cuddly things like pink and purple fuzz."

Annie was confused. "Um, I don't know what you're talking about!" She mumbled in a bewildered voice. "And another thing, where are we and who are you? My mother told me never to talk to strangers." She asserted importantly.

Her strange eyes widened in amazement. "Don't you know me?"

Annie shook her head.

"Oh but I'm…" her face fell. "I am… oh bother! I sometimes forget you know." She said in a conspiratorial whisper. Then she laughed. "Isn't it funny to know who you are and yet to not know at all?"

Annie stamped her feet in frustration. "You aren't making any sense!"

"But is sense sensible? What if sensibility was the only sense that made sense?" 

"You're crazy." Annie commented matter-of-factly.

At that instant, the light of remembrance sparked in the girl's eyes. She clapped her hands delightedly and multi-colored goldfish came swimming forth. "No I'm not, I'm Del!" She crowed triumphantly. She held out her had and a tiny fish swam lazily in her palm.

Annie took the offered hand and gingerly shook it. It was disconcerting to feel the goldfish squirming between their clasped hands.


	3. Chapter 3

The walls shifted and moved like shadows dancing in the moonlight. Morpheus was indifferent to the hushed and hurried scurrying in the darkened alleys of the Dreaming. He knew every nook and cranny of his kingdom and it was an exercise in futility, this.

"You cannot hide from me forever sister." He whispered softly. "Don't try my patience." He ended. He stopped at the end of the street. A sliver of starlight sliced through the darkness, revealing to him the hunched form of Despair.

"It all ends brother dear, it all ends." She cackled harshly. "There is nothing you can do that can alter the course of nature." She cocked her head to the side and viewed him from the corner of her eyes. A sly grin slowly spread over her distorted face. "Unless of course, you are considering…?"

"No!" He interrupted angrily. "You forget yourself sister…" He rasped silkily. "To even think about it is punishable by my laws."

"Ahhh… I seem to have struck a nerve…" She smiled as only Despair can, a gruesome twisting of lips that looked more like a grimace. Stroking the rat on her lap she continued, "It's a lamentable shame but," she paused, inhaling deeply she went on, "I can taste the bitterness of your despair Dream." She laughed again, an obscene sound that echoed throughout his kingdom. "It all ends brother, it all ends." She repeated.


	4. Chapter 4

He bit his lip, anxiously pacing the confines of the room. The constant blip of the machine by his daughter's bedside both consoled and defeated him. Helpless, he could do nothing but watch the light of his life slowly fade away. The metallic taste of blood suddenly filled his mouth. Its acrid flavor spread over his tongue like a malevolent disease. Time… time… there was so little time to do and say everything he wanted to. The little girl shifted in her sleep. Immediately, he was by her side, anxiously searching for signs, anything that would indicate a change in her condition. Nothing…

"Please God… please…" he whispered fervently. "Don't take her away… not now, not yet."


	5. Chapter 5

The palace of the Dreaming was a cold and lonely place. It's ebony and ivory halls echoed the emptiness of broken dreams. In a small room with shifting walls, a solitary figure sat in a throne of carved bone.

"I've unearthed something that might be of interest to you sir."

The figure remained unmoved. He was staring deeply at something only he could see.

Clearing his throat, Lucien continued, "Like I said sir, I found something that might be useful in your er, undertaking."

Dream turned his attention to the thin bespectacled man in front of him. "Spit it out Lucien, I haven't got all day."

"Ehem…" Lucien said repeated. "Apparently, during the last masquerade…" he let his words trail off.

"For heaven's sake Lucien, we're going around in circles," the Lord of the Dreaming burst out impatiently. "You obviously have something on your mind, tell me." He demanded.

Lucien felt the need to proceed cautiously. His master was very impatient, if nothing else. The few times he actually lost his temper… he shuddered inwardly… were actually moments he preferred to forget.

"There is a book, it seems that has been forgotten even by time herself. I came across a volume so ancient that even I had trouble figuring out what it was."

"Spare me the theatrics Lucien, there are things I must attend to." Dream's unblinking gaze narrowed sharply on the spare form of his subject.

The words he'd been agonizing over just a few seconds before suddenly erupted from his lips like little green elves running. "The book my lord tells the story of Lady Annissina." He then looked up expectantly.

Morpheus, the shaper of dreams turned his gaze to the window. "Annissina," he murmured thoughtfully.


	6. Chapter 6

The harsh glare of the TV screen woke her up. She sat up cautiously, and lifted a withered hand to gingerly touch her throbbing head. Hangovers were a bitch, she though to herself wryly.

"Crap. These drinking sprees have got to stop," she muttered under her breath. She hurriedly braced her hand against the wall as a wave of nausea hit her. "Jesus," she exclaimed, as it was only then that she realized the awful state her room was in.

It was always the same. She'd promise herself that she'd stop drinking excessively, then her friends would call, and as they say—the rest was history. What happened, she wondered? She lost herself somewhere along the way. She was contemplating the crap-fest that was her life when the cell phone rang, interrupting her introspection.

"Yeah," she answered sharply.

"Where are you?"

Alaine stiffened upon hearing the tenseness in the caller's voice. "Has something happened? Is she ok? What's wrong dad?" The questions came out in a succession of harsh tones.

"You better come over—quickly." There was a catch in his throat. "Annie…" his voice trailed off.

"Dammit dad Tell me! What happened?" she half screamed into the receiver. Panic was crashing over her in paralyzing waves. "What's happened to Annie?"

"She… she's slipped into a coma," her father said brokenly. "We're losing her."


	7. Chapter 7

Annie blinked. A lone purple goldfish swam lazily in the air in front of her, but the funny-looking girl with the bizarre colored hair was gone. She watched the fish, slightly hypnotized by its swirling movements.

_Swish. Swish. Swish._

Then, it too disappeared. Annie blinked again. This was definitely strange, she thought to herself. As if suddenly remembering a half-forgotten dream, she became aware of her surroundings. She was in grassy field filled with beautiful and strange flowers. Their shapes and sizes varied from ones as small as a raindrop to those as big as an umbrella.

"Hmmnn…" she said to herself. "Where in the world am I?" She looked around curiously, albeit cautiously as well. Looking left and right, she tried to decide which path she would take. She was about to start walking forward when she a loud cough echoed behind her.

She whirled around and her eyes practically popped out of their sockets in surprise. Another strange-looking (person?) stood before her. He had the studied air of one trying to exude nonchalance but on a face like his… he just looked comical. Really, she was starting to feel that she had entered some bizarre alternate universe. The 'man' was wearing blue over-alls (which in itself was pretty normal); the unusual part was that a huge pumpkin was perched atop his shoulders, in the place where his head should have been. Annie started chuckling in delight at the picture he presented but managed a wheezy, "How do you do?"

Something that sounded like a harrrrumph issued forth from the cavernous mouth. "You're not very polite are you?" the pumpkin-head said indifferently.

Annie's eyes widened in shock, and a hand flew up to cover her lips. "I'm so sorry!" she murmured in a horrified whisper. "I didn't mean to laugh at you," the last words barely audible.

"Geez! What are they thinking? Making me come after this sniveling brat," he mumbled to himself irritably. "Do I look like a nursemaid?" He ended with a dark scowl.

Cringing a bit at his harsh words, she hung her head in embarrassment.

Merv glanced at the bowed head and sighed inwardly. This was definitely a drag. Lucien was definitely hearing from him when they got back.


	8. Chapter 8

Head bowed and eyes downcast, Annie quietly trailed after the towering form before her. Merv— yes, that was his name if she recalled it accurately, had said something about going to see a person named Lucien. After that he started walking away, without so much as a by-your-leave. And when she had merely stared after his retreating back, he turned around and shot her a lethal glare, growling a terse, "Are you coming or not?" from deep within that cavernous mouth of his.

Annie sighed gustily. She had no idea why she was following the taciturn pumpkin-head— when in fact, she would have preferred to stay in that lovely field and played amongst the brilliant flowers.

"Um, Merv?" She asked timidly.

"What do you want, kid?" He asked irritably, taking a long drag on the cigarette clamped firmly between what probably constituted as lips.

Fighting the urge not to squirm under his penetrating stare, Annie met his glance equably.

"I was just wondering where you're taking me?" She replied with a shrug of thin shoulders.

"We've been walking for hours and I'm a bit tired you know." Annie went on, a hint of rebuke tingeing her voice. As if in time with her complaint, a soft wheeze burst forth from pouting lips.

She moved stumblingly to the side, and promptly sat down on a small hardened lump by the road-side. Her breath puffed out in tiny wisps of cold air.

"I'm tired." Annie declared emphatically, then wriggled around to make herself more comfortable on her chosen seat. She flexed her fingers gingerly, feeling the familiar ache in tense joints that had blessedly been absent for the past few hours.

Well, it was too good to be true anyway, she thought morosely. From past experience, Annie knew it wouldn't be long before she couldn't move at all.

First she'd feel slight twinges of pain in her extremities. Fingers, then it would radiate inward to her arms until they became numb. Her toes would follow next, legs cramping until her whole body would be like one paralyzed nerve-ending.

Annie's mouth curved wryly at the morbid path her thoughts had taken.

Much to his chagrin, Merv had no idea what to do now that the wraith-like creature had attached itself to her perch like lichen. He opted to grumble and grouch rather than show his obvious discomfiture.

"Hey kid!" Merv barked in alarm, oblivious to her quiet contemplation. "Get up! Didn't your parents ever teach you that it's dangerous to sit near the road?" he demanded crankily.

Annie merely shook her head and looked at him calmly. "Yes they did, but I don't think there's any harm in this."

She glanced around, a barren landscape filled her sight and there was nothing to see but dirt and jagged rocks for miles on end. "What could possibly be dangerous in this place?"

"Everything!" He bit out succinctly. Merv's unblinking eyes scanned the horizon worriedly, not liking the ominous gray tinting the sky.

He was about to make another scathing remark but bit down on his tongue as he observed the violet smudges that suddenly appeared under her eyes. Merv had to be half-blind to have failed to notice the beads of sweat forming on her pale forehead, or to miss out on the milky haze slowly clouding her warm brown eyes.

Grumbling a string of curses beneath his breath, he shook his head helplessly. Lucien owed him big time for this one, Lord Morpheus be damned! Merv didn't have the faintest idea of how to deal with a child, much less a sick one at that.

His slash of a mouth tightened grimly. "Come here sprout," he ordered gruffly— gangly arms outstretched. "It can't be helped. If you're that tired, then we'll make camp here. There's a cave somewhere nearby. Can you still walk?" He asked rhetorically.

Annie tilted her head slightly and looked up at the worried (or so it seemed, to her anyway) face looming over her.

"No of course not," he muttered in a low voice, answering his own question. Merv sighed heavily. "I guess I have no choice but to carry you, do I?" he ended on a note that somehow bordered on a whine.

Despite the soreness rapidly spreading through her frail form, Annie smiled at him beatifically.

"I'm sorry to be such a bother, Merv." Annie whispered haltingly against his neck.

Merv stiffened, then shifted to accommodate the feather-light bundle in his arms. "It's nothing." He mumbled dismissively.

Annie snuggled deeper into his arms. For a pumpkin, he sure was warm she thought whimsically. She giggled at that.

A smile made a brief appearance on Merv's lips and he wondered why this tiny slip of a girl moved him so.

"Annie," he intoned abruptly.

"Hmmmnnn…" she replied sleepily.

"Do you even know where you are? I'm sure you're aware at least that, this place," he paused briefly, before continuing on. "This place isn't normal, right?"

"Yes," she responded softly.

"I'm amazed that you didn't even panic the first time you saw me." He murmured conversationally. "I don't exactly have what you can call a pleasing countenance. 'yah know." He finished dryly.

"So why weren't you surprised at all? I heard you met Del but even that didn't faze you," he said slightly awestruck.

Now that had conceded defeat, Merv didn't feel the need to keep up his brash front any longer.

"So what gives?" He asked curiously.

"It's a matter of…" Annie answered in a slurred and muffled voice.

"Eh? What was that?" Merv pestered perversely.

Annie yawned again, then repeated her answer. "I said… it's a matter of perspective."

He looked at her interestedly "Oh really now. How so?"

"Why should I be surprised?" she inquired faintly. "I've had fun since I got here, the most fun I've had in years." Annie murmured wistfully.

"And while I have no idea where we are or where I am, it doesn't really matter. I've resolved that I will try to enjoy myself as much as I can, while I still can." Annie stated determinedly.

Merv laughed at her serious tone and found that the desire to tease her was too strong to ignore.

"Jesus Annie! You sound like an old lady in the twilight of her life. Lighten up will you?" he said mockingly.

"You're just a wee sprout, what's with this nonsense?" He queried, raising a dark brow.

Annie looked at him with wide-eyed surprise, her mouth forming a small "o."

"Hey!" he protested darkly. "What's with that look?"

She smiled at him sadly. That's right, Annie thought with a twinge of bittersweet regret, Merv didn't know…

"What?" He repeated crabbily.

"I'm dying." Annie stated simply.


End file.
